CLEVELAND — If the Mavericks were in a beauty contest, they would have needed wart-removal cream.

Spots were breaking out all over and getting uglier by the day.

That’s what made Saturday night’s display in Cleveland so cleansing and therapeutic.

The Mavericks not only got a victory, they got it exactly the way they needed it — digging out a tough finish with a herd of players contributing. They overran the Cavaliers late to turn a tie game into a 103-95 win at Quicken Loans Arena.

The win earned them a split on this quick, two-game trip, something that seemed out of reach after the debacle Friday at Indianapolis.

And it didn’t look too likely when they fumbled away a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter against the Cavaliers.

So what happened?

“We quit doing certifiably insane things with the ball,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “That’s the juncture of our season. We had a seven-point lead, they came back and tied it and we called timeout, and it can go either way.

“We can man up and stick together and do it the hard way and help each other. Or the thing can go south. The guys got it done together. Right now, we’re trying to figure out who we are, and we’ve got a lot of things going on. It’s important to pull together and make something good happen.”

By doing so, the Mavericks avoided falling under .500 for the first time this season, improving to 6-5 with a well-played fourth quarter at both ends of the floor. There were 24 lead changes in the game, but none in the final eight minutes as the Mavericks persevered.

They had six players score in double figures. Just as important was the defense of Chris Kaman (six blocks) and Dahntay Jones, who played the entire fourth quarter and was charged with guarding dynamic Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving, who had the ball in his hands virtually every possession.

Jones had a key block on Irving with 1:04 to go and the Mavericks up, 99-95.

Asked how badly the Mavericks needed to see a game like this, just to validate that they aren’t as bad off as they may have thought, Kaman said: “Desperately. Everybody’s a little frustrated around here. We let some games slip. Tonight we finished the game the way we’re supposed to.”

The Mavericks were up 87-80 as Darren Collison and Shawn Marion took charge. Everybody was contributing as the Mavericks shot 59 percent in the final 12 minutes. Cleveland made just 39 percent of its shots (9-of-23) in the fourth.

Still, the Cavaliers fought back to make it 89-89, and that’s when Kaman knocked in a 20-foot jumper, followed quickly by a 3-pointer from O.J. Mayo, who led the Mavericks with 19 points. Collison and Marion then converted, and the Mavericks were up 98-89 with three minutes to go.

Cleveland closed to within three points at 98-95, but Jones’ block was followed by a Kaman rejection with 46 seconds left. The Mavericks finished with 14 blocked shots, tying for the most by any team in a game this season.

“It wasn’t like a runaway win,” Mayo said. “It wasn’t like a fool’s gold win where we didn’t play well and still won. That’s a good ballclub. For us to grind it out the way we did and everybody make plays down the stretch, it was big for us.”

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